Federal government agencies face all kinds of challenges when leveraging IT to drive mission success. From legacy systems that consume a disproportionate amount of the operating budget to architecture that can no longer adapt to modern requirements, these types of obstacles quickly undermine efficiency, performance, and success. One of the most often cited, yet easiest, ways to overcome challenges is integration. By keeping six key integration trends in mind, you can plan to poise your agency for long-term mission success.

Everything will be Hybrid

The complexity of cloud adoption and the need for increased innovation to build digital apps will force IT to explore different cloud options. Agencies will want hybrid cloud, hybrid integration and even managed cloud. Agencies will move away from just cloud solutions to real hybrid solutions. Instead of just focusing on public and private cloud options, IT will increasingly explore other models for flexibility and control.

APIs will get their SWAGGER back

The Swagger API framework is becoming the de facto standard and initiatives like Open API are further standardizing the role of Swagger in API development. We predict that Swagger will gain further traction and over time become the most widely used standard for APIs. Vendors will rally behind the Open API initiative and give Swagger a much-needed boost to become the dominating API standard and RAML will fade over time.

APIs will Enable ‘Self-Service’ Integration

Imagine a world where everything is an API and all your data is immediately accessible to you and those you choose. That includes citizens, partners, suppliers, banks and just about everyone in your ecosystem. How will you manage this complicated world of open data access? APIs will provide the answer and self-service style on-boarding for APIs will drive integration.

Bi Modal goes Mainstream

Citizen developers and citizen integrators will co-exist peacefully with IT teams to deliver new applications and interfaces to speed the overall innovation quotient of the agency. Different integration models will come together under IT and thrive.

Integration will Capture Big Data’s Hidden Value

Several agencies have been adopting Hadoop platforms for storing data sets without actualizing the full value. Increased integration of existing systems with newly acquired Hadoop platforms will unlock the hidden value, enabling Big Data to finally be used to make smart and faster decisions.

Microservices will Demolish Monolithic Architectures

The microservices movement will gain strength and slowly keep drilling away at the foundation of monolithic architectures. As agencies speed up digital transformation, they will realize that the biggest roadblock to faster innovation is the legacy monolithic architectures—and will find ways to adopt more “DevOps” friendly microservices-based architectures.

What should you look for when evaluating integration solutions? While there are many factors to consider, including end-to-end life-cycle management from design to deployment, ask questions in these three areas.

Does the vendor’s technology leverage a common IDE, installer, runtime, and admin and monitoring tools?

Is it based on a proven solution-centric methodology that consists of an implementation and deployment process for your entire solution and a project life-cycle?

Does the vendor bring value-added expertise? How much experience does the vendor have? Are they able to execute on a pilot project within a month and then be in production within 90 days?

Interested in learning more about IT integration and how it contributes to better performance at lower costs? You can download a free trial of the leading integration software here.